A group of nine Congress councillors submitted a formal complaint to Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav, seeking legal action against DSP Morinda Gurjit Singh and other police personnel allegedly involved in preventing them from exercising their voting rights during the election.
On Thursday, AAP managed to install Jagpal Singh Jolly, an Independent candidate who later joined the party, as president of Morinda Municipal Council, despite the Congress having a majority in the House with 10 elected councillors. With nine Congress councillors signing the complaint against the police, it is being inferred that one Congress councillor defected to AAP. However, the Congress still has a majority with 9 out of 15 councillors in the House.
In the complaint signed by nine elected councillors, the complainants alleged that the police administration illegally prevented them from participating in the election process held on July 10 and used force against them. The councillors also alleged that former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was pushed, manhandled, and prevented from entering the Municipal Council premises despite accompanying the elected representatives.
According to the complaint, the councillors reached the Municipal Council office before the scheduled time for the election but found the area around the office heavily barricaded and converted into a police-controlled zone. They alleged that the large deployment of police personnel created an atmosphere of fear among the elected members.
The councillors further claimed that after crossing the barricades and entering the Municipal Council office, police officials directed all of them to wait inside the president’s room on the pretext that the SDM had not yet arrived. However, they alleged that the room was locked from outside, amounting to illegal confinement.
The complaint stated that one of the councillors, Surinder Kaur, became terrified after finding the room locked, and alleged that the situation could have turned dangerous had she not been taken out in time.
The councillors alleged that they repeatedly protested against their confinement and raised slogans demanding their constitutional right to vote. They claimed that sanitation workers who were staging a protest inside the Municipal Council office also came forward in their support.
The complainants further alleged that without allowing them to cast their votes or completing the prescribed election process, the administration declared the election of the Municipal Council president. They accused the administration of acting under political pressure and alleged that the president was appointed without following due procedure.
The councillors also claimed that they had not even been administered the oath as Municipal Council members before the election process, describing the entire exercise as illegal and unconstitutional.
Seeking intervention from the DGP, the complainants demanded registration of a criminal case against the DSP and other police officials involved, and requested an impartial inquiry into the alleged denial of their democratic and constitutional rights during the election.
The complaint has been signed by councillors Mandeep Singh Bajwa, Rajesh Kumar Sisodia, Mahendra Singh Dhillon, Kamaljit Kaur, Skander Kaur, Surinder Kaur, Gunjan Sood, Neha Sharma, and Pinky Kaur.
SSP Ropar Maninder Singh, when contacted, said, “No complaint from Morinda Congress councillors has reached me. I shall probe the matter once the complaint reaches me.”